Refashioned Primark Coat to Victoria Blazer

Absolutely ages ago, I went through my wardrobe (you can see all the clothes I owned here) and gave some stuff away to charity shops and put other things in my ‘to be refashioned’ pile. I had an old coat from Primark which went onto this pile as I hadn’t warn it in ages and it wasn’t really very warm, but because of the style, I thought there might be enough fabric to remake it into a jacket.

You can see how long ago I took the ‘before’ pictures from my hair! (November 2013 to be precise!)

I figured the fullness at the back would come in handy, and I liked the stripey lining. The sleeves were lined with plain navy shiny fabric. I decided to use the By Hand London Victoria Blazer as the pattern, especially after I so fell in love with my black version. I did have to do some careful cutting out to be able to get all the pieces out of the right fabric – it’s funny how after unpicking the coat it looked like so much fabric, but then when you try to lay a pattern on the top, it suddenly seems like not enough!

I used some left-over fabric from my Georgia Dress for the collar, cuffs and lapels. I like how this looks a more casual version of the jacket, though my black one isn’t super formal.

On the front, some of the seam lines from the original coat are still there, as this was the only way to get the pieces cut out. I unpicked most of the original seams, but I did realise that if I unpicked all these small seams, I would definitely have had not enough fabric! (I should really have ironed this before taking the pictures!) I’m also quite impressed with myself for managing to make the 2 fronts symmetrical – if I do say so myself!

I’m less impressed with myself for the back – I had to piece it, having a centre seam, remembering to add 1.5cm for a seam allowance. The eagle-eyed among you may spot the fact that the 2 halves look different colours. This is because, even though I spent ages with the pattern piece for the back on the old bottom of the coat, I failed to realised I had to cut one half with the outside facing up and one half with the inside facing up, to get the pieces to fit and be mirror images. So the inside is darker than the outside, and therefore one side is darker than the other side. Oh well, never mind. I don’t care enough to not wear it!

You may be wondering about the length of the jacket – or maybe not! In fact, probably not. But there is something odd about the length – it is in between the long and short lengths. Ooh, I can hear the noises of wonder that I could be so imaginative! So I took 11cm off the long length, because I didn’t have enough fabric. I did still include the pockets, which I made sure to hold out the way when sewing the bottom seam as there isn’t really enough room for the pockets. I moved the pockets up a bit as the markings were about 2cm from the bottom of the jacket – this does mean they are slightly awkward to get my hands in. But at least I’ve got somewhere to put my phone!

I used the original lining and sleeve lining for the lining of the jacket. Again this was pieced to get the full pattern cut out – you can see some of the seams below. I pieced this before I cut out the pattern, rather than after as it seemed easier somehow.

I used the original (probably very, very synthetic) sleeve linings – I tried to see if there was enough of the stripey lining for the sleeves too, but there really wasn’t sadly.I really like the contrasting collar, cuffs and lapel – I did this partly out of necessity – but I actually think it makes the jacket look a bit more special.

I do really like the shape of the Victoria jacket – this fabric has more structure than the black stuff I used for my other version, so it does sit slightly differently.

Do you ever find a pattern you love, like for a jacket or jeans, and decide that you never need another pattern for the same garment? I feel like eventually I could make multiple versions of about 6 different patterns. But then there will always be new, shiny patterns that will tempt me away from my TNT batch!